A productive mindset, during any career transition, is your ability to relate your well positioned “story” to others, answer questions effectively, conduct productive negotiations, and, in general, fine tune your personal salesmanship skills. So what are those basic tactics that will allow you to effectively “close the deal?”
NEXT WEEK’s Session: Closing The Deal II, Interviewing Tactics, including POST-Offer Negotiation
- Practice your two minute drill every chance you get…. it’s the fundamental building material of your communication strategy–your verbal collaterals!
- Practice your exit and qualification statements… most all potential employers and networking contacts will want to know your current situation and why you are available.
- Practice answering both common and tough questions… including pre-offer negotiation tactics.
The most asked question during career transition is, “Tell me about yourself.” Appropriate use of your two-minute drill and related verbal strategies, your “verbal collaterals,” is a key ingredient to personal salesmanship…
Interested, Qualified and Available…
At the end of the day both third-party and Corporate recruiters deliver Interested, Qualified and Available candidates to the desktop of hiring managers. They source a set of candidates, qualify them, get their interest, present and hopefully close.
An individual should suspect the Company of compiling a pool of talent when they receive a position of interest by email–especially unsolicited. If you choose to submit, you will typically be directed to a series of questions about the position. These are answered by the candidate and immediately scored by the software managing the talent pool. You might be amazed by the swiftness of the next step.
The candidates immediately receive a response telling them they are qualified or not for the position while simultaneously those who are Interested, Qualified and Available are sent to the desktop of the recruiter and hiring authority for the next step in the process.
We all must be challenged to understand and embrace new technology that can make us more productive and effective to the organizations we serve. What we have, here, is the failure to merge two ineffective processes in to one very mutually advantageous one: Shared productivity in the world of recruitment…The OTHER Job Market!
MoneySpeak
Regardless of offer acceptability or detail, try never to accept on-the-spot. Rather, choose to get back to them with your acceptance in a reasonable time period. You never want to imply that you are getting back with them to negotiate.
This separate transaction will help you feel prepared and confident, and help to mitigate the emotion of the moment. Even the most passive communicator should focus on one item within the offer as a target for upgrading. When in the conversation of accepting the position, express interest and motivation regarding the opportunity… pause… then “I must ask, though… Is there anything we can do about ____ ?” An inquiry about an item often leads to getting it!
You could be a bit more assertive in your acceptance by asking for a few minutes to go over the entire offer, to make sure you understand it… pause… then, go through each of the seven items included in a position’s worth (above), inquiring about each item.
Only the more aggressive communicators should attempt a more aggressive approach where you ask to go through the entire offer, making a specific request to upgrade each item as you discuss it.
In fact, when you know you have a position of negotiating strength (other offers, new business or new contacts to bring, or a unique operational strength to bring, like a personal patent or a design resolution) you might even consider a counter-offer.
Your POSITION “WORTH”
While potential employers recruit within well-defined salary ranges, your position’s worth is so much more. This total value is what you seek to improve upon, and it has several variables…
- Base Salary
- STRUCTURED BONUS… paid in a regular and frequent paycheck
- UNStructured Bonus… these are the elusive, discretionary money sources.
- Benefits
- Perks
- First year vacation
- Starting date, if currently employed!
MYCAREERpilot 